Next Media Declines on Sale of TV Unit at Loss: Hong Kong Mover

April 16 (Bloomberg) -- Next Media Ltd. shares fell the
most in two weeks after the Hong Kong-based publisher and
broadcasting company agreed to sell its money-losing Taiwan
television unit to a rival at a loss.

The company’s shares fell as much as 7.8 percent, headed
for the biggest drop since April 2, to HK$0.83, before trading
at HK$0.88 as of 11:02 a.m. in Hong Kong.

Next Media Chairman Jimmy Lai agreed to sell for NT$1.4
billion ($47 million) and will post a loss of HK$522.8 million
($67.4 million) on the proposed deal with ERA Communications
Inc. Chairman Lien Tai-sheng, the company said in a statement to
the Hong Kong stock exchange yesterday. An attempt to sell Lai’s
print business in Taiwan collapsed last month amid concerns that
the deal would give the buyers too much control of the island’s
news media.

“Lai’s dream of expanding in the TV industry has been
broken,” said Lo Shih-hung, an associate professor at the
National Chung Cheng University’s Department of Communication in
Taiwan. “His print business still has the competitive
advantage.”

Lai, a Hong Kong billionaire known for his anti-Beijing
stance, won programming licenses from regulators and struggled
to convince cable TV operators to offer his channels.

“The proposed disposal allows the group to rationalize and
focus its resources on the group’s profitable operations,” the
Next Media said in the statement. Lien is buying the business
and assuming loans, it said.

Widening Losses

The Taiwan TV business’s loss widened to HK$543.4 million
for the fiscal year ended March 2012, from HK$320 million a year
earlier, the company said yesterday.

Next Media agreed to sell to Lien of closely held ERA
Communications after proposed deals with four other businessmen
fell through. The company had also in October agreed to sell the
TV assets to Lien for NT$1.4 billion before the transaction was
terminated in the same month.

Lai’s partial exit comes as ties between Taiwan and China
reached their warmest in more than six decades, after Taiwan
President Ma Ying-jeou focused on economic ties and dropped the
pro-independence stance of his predecessor.

Next Media’s print publications Apple Daily and Next
Magazine are banned in mainland China because of their anti-Beijing stance. Lai started the Taiwan version of Next magazine
in 2001, followed by Apple Daily, known for celebrity gossip and
graphic depictions of violent crimes.